With the two major celebrity suicides this week, it is hard to ignore this topic.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Phone Number

1-800-273-8255

Let me first say SUICIDE IS NOT THE ANSWER! If you are feeling that you need to take your own life, seek help! Don't stop and think about what other people think about you and who will be gossiping. Get help now, and deal with the nay-sayers later.

Life is hard. It's hard just to survive from day to day. Most Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck with two incomes. Time is short, work is stressful, and everyone we know seems to let us down. We are constantly being hurt the most by the people that are supposed to love us the most, but somehow that love never seems to happen.

Now, here's where we get controversial. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that if you commit suicide you will go to Hell. The idea that the church leans on is based on the story of Judas. After betraying Christ, Judas committed suicide, and we are told that he went to hell. But, it does not say that he went to hell for the suicide. He committed an act of betrayal and treachery against the Son of God. The teaching of the church is an inference, and it may be a valid one, but it may not. We simply do not know based on the Scriptures. For our answers we need to seek God. Ask Him what you want to know. Go to the source. Absolutely consult with your pastor or priest. But if the answer does not lead you toward healing, ask someone else. Get a second opinion. You can do that! It's not just for medicine.

But the church does teach that you absolutely have a purpose. "Before you were knit together in your mother's womb, I knew you." God planned your existence before the beginning of time. You were no accident. You were not unplanned, or unwanted. You are not unloved. The Great God of the universe has a reason and a purpose for your life. Don't cut that short. Explore it, find it, fulfill it.

I encourage you to tell your doctor. Tell a nurse or a therapist. Confide in a trusted friend if you have one. Call the suicide prevention hotline. It is anonymous, and they are there because they care, and they want to help you. You are the most important person in the world at that moment, and they have help to offer.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Phone Number

1-800-273-8255

If you are not a church member, I encourage you, walk into a church and ask for help. Look for a Bible based, Christ centered church, not a fad or a cult. Send me an email if you like, or need help finding a good church. If you can speak to the pastor great. If you can't, tell an usher, elder, deacon, or even another parishioner. Tell someone. If that person can't help you they will find someone who can.

What I am saying to you is that PEOPLE CARE. If the people close to you don't, then FIND SOME NEW PEOPLE!

Life is too short to be miserable. This life is just practice for all eternity. We are here on a dry run. This life has time limits, but eternity is forever, Seek God here while you can. He has the answers for now, and later.

We are now living in what experts are calling 'The Me Generation." Everything circles around 'me.'

"I am important. (More important than you.)

"I deserve to be happy." (You don't, but I do)

"Everything has to be the way I want it to be." (Including the things you do too!)

Translation: "I don't really care about you." (It's all about me!)

Actions speak louder than words. Most especially the actions that take place behind closed doors, or when we think no one else is looking.

Here is an interesting article by Psychology Today that addresses these exact thoughts and the new age. It directly refers to this thought pattern as "a form of judging." After I thought about it for a bit, I think I would define it down a bit further and call in "reverse judging". Instead of me openly putting you down, which is not acceptable and sometimes even cruel, I will instead elevate myself up above you. You are still beneath me, and I do not appear to be the bad guy... but look deeper. Look at the actions that accompany the words.

If anybody in the history of the world had the right to say "It's all about Me!" that would be Jesus of Nazareth. But He did not. Rather than coming to make himself the great one, He came in a spirit of humility and giving so that we could all be saved. He came for us, He suffered for us, and He died for us. And He definitely did NOT deserve it. We are to emulate the teachings and attributes of Christ.

So the next time someone says you deserve something, or more likely, they do ~ think about the earthly motives behind the speech, and watch the actions that come along with it.